Peter Varley wrote: >I think there's a misunderstanding here. The composers listed were >*either* chess-players *or* mathematicians. It's not really surprising >that the ones who were mathematicians were excessively mathematical, is it? In my experience most mathematicians play chess. >IMO, the best-known composer who played chess was Prokofiev. Does anyone >think of Prokofiev's music as excessively mathematical or impersonal? And >the best-known chess-player who also composed was certainly Philidor. Prokofiev's favourite composer was Haydn. I have read that a lot of Haydn's music is based on number sequences. Bob Draper [log in to unmask]